Economy
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G7 declaration and WTO reform: war or peace?
Cordell Hull, winner of the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize, wrote “removing trade barriers would go a long way toward eliminating war”. More recently Donald Trump stated, “trade wars are good, and easy to win”. With a degeneration of the trading system and debilitating obstacles facing Australian exports to China, we are told “the drums of… Continue reading »
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Is the expanding medical workforce meeting changing community needs?
After around 20 years of expansion in medical workforce supply (Geffen, 2014), what are the key issues facing the medical workforce today? When producing more doctors, it is essential to ensure the additional doctors are used to meet the population need for healthcare, rather than reinforcing a paradox of overtreatment and overdiagnosis for some of… Continue reading »
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Australia’s infrastructure plans: why can’t we get it right? Thorough inquiries are needed.
Recent reports confirm severe problems with plans for transport infrastructure in at least Australia’s two biggest cities. The Commonwealth, as well as State Governments, is blameworthy…. Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy… Continue reading »
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Jobs versus climate
A debate between having a job and acting on climate change is painful for everyone involved and will not end well. Yet the absence of a clear narrative from our political leaders to clarify the issue is leaving many Australian communities in exactly that position…. Continue reading »
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Do free markets still beat central planning?
Institutional arrangements are complex systems, shaped by history, geography, and culture. The objective should not be to identify a one-size-fits-all approach, but rather to devise the combination of characteristics that would deliver the greatest good for the greatest number of people, with the right checks and balances…. Continue reading »
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Who just gives away billions? Is this what the Collaery case is all about?
Many of us have heard about the prosecution of Bernard Collaery on the say-so of Christian Porter. But very few know much more than that it is an almost secret trial against the former ACT Attorney-General. Unfortunately, John le Carré is no longer with us to tell this intriguing tale…. Continue reading »
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Mice and men: the mouse plague and aggressive land clearing
Over the years, Australian authorities have made many poor decisions about allowing the introduction of biocidal agents into the environment. In most cases, such decisions have been based on the demands of powerful minorities with no responsibility to the general community. The Berejiklian-Barilaro government looks set to outdo them all by authorising the use of… Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy…. Continue reading »
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Should Labor oppose the Government’s Stage 3 Income Tax Cuts?
Australia faces a choice between demands for lower taxes, and raising the revenue needed to fund essential services. This article suggests how a plan to increase taxation revenue could be presented at the next election, starting with ditching the Government’s Stage 3 income tax cuts…. Continue reading »
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People movement during Covid and emergence of a growing and permanent underclass
While Prime Minister Morrison initially told temporary entrants in Australia to go home, relatively few followed his instruction. His Government’s new message to these people is to stay and work in largely unskilled jobs. This ignores the long-term consequences of a growing and permanent underclass that will have to be dealt with after the election…. Continue reading »
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Radioactive trash – a tale of two Sydney suburbs
Australia is relatively clear of nuclear reprocessing waste problems. But the Sydney suburbs of Hunters Hill and Barden Ridge have radioactive wastes from uranium processing which have been sitting there for decades. A bill is now before the Senate addressing the issue…. Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy… Continue reading »
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Australia’s fundamental fiscal dilemma
This was a big pump-priming budget. The maximum deficit as a proportion of GDP is 7.8% which makes the deepest deficits of the Rudd (4.2%) and Whitlam (2.8%) governments look modest. It discards the government’s pre-pandemic commitment to return to surplus. Of the $92 billion of new spending over the next four years, two-thirds is… Continue reading »
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When should government debt be repaid and how?
There is no problem financing government debt. As the debt can only be repaid by running budget surpluses, debt reduction should start in mid-2023 when the Treasury is forecasting that economic recovery will be complete and there will be no spare capacity…. Continue reading »
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Prosthesis pricing is a dead parrot
Hidden in the 2021-22 Budget papers was an announcement that the government had squibbed an opportunity to reduce private health insurance premiums by ending a protection racket involving private device manufacturers and importers, and private hospitals…. Continue reading »
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Road pricing must start with electric vehicles
Electric vehicles provide an opportunity to introduce road pricing reforms, but ‘clean air tax’ lobbyists threaten to embed poor road-use habits…. Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy… Continue reading »
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How good is the 2021 Budget?
The 2021 Budget continues the Government’s good work in minimising the impact of the Covid recession and promoting economic recovery. However, the Government could still do better in setting up Australia for the future and guaranteeing essential services…. Continue reading »
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Will we ever see a socially responsible budget?
They might be calling it the Women’s Budget, but the way I read it this budget attempts to appear to be in the public interest but it’s actually aimed squarely at the private sector. Funding allocated to target women’s needs is actually designed to give money to providers of services that employ mainly women and… Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy… Continue reading »
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Has the Government’s economic strategy really changed, and what can we expect in future?
The Government’s new focus on unemployment as the key target for budget policy is welcome. But it will need to spend more and therefore tax more, if Australia is to achieve its full economic potential and jobs growth…. Continue reading »
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All-fibre, publicly owned, NBN must top the list of Post-Covid infrastructure investment
On December 24 2020, our Christmas stocking had a surprise gift from Santa in the form of Communications Minister, Paul Fletcher. He announced a fully operational NBN. The long-overdue baby had finally been delivered…. Continue reading »
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Australia’s runaway land price problem
The nation is set to break land price inflation records in three of the next five years, based on past land price growth averages. It is time to act on past tax inquiries…. Continue reading »
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Cheap shot to attack the central bank
Jim Chalmers, ALP shadow treasurer, has shown the dead hand of Hayek, probably inadvertently. The conclusion from Labor’s call for a thorough review of the RBA, is that Albanese and Chalmers have devised no fiscal policy to work in tandem with the RBA’s decent remits…. Continue reading »
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Progress on Australia-EU-UK trade talks
Dan Tehan may well come to regret the timing of his swing through Europe to try and reignite interest in trade deals between Australia and the European Union and the United Kingdom. There has seldom been a week in April when the political agenda right across Europe is so full of events and crises of… Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy… Continue reading »
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Housing affordability is a problem. Here’s why super-for-housing isn’t a solution
The idea that young Australians should be able to dip into their super to help buy their first home keeps going round and round. The most recent iteration put forward by the Coalition’s Tim Wilson and a clutch of other backbenchers has the catchy slogan Home First, Super Second…. Continue reading »
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Are there lessons for the rest of the world in Australia’s management of covid-19 and the “corona-recession”?
One could question whether Australia is ‘leading the pack’ in recovering from the ‘corona-recession’…. Continue reading »
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Superannuation is much more than one man’s legacy
No one is as quick to defend Australia’s superannuation system, and the legislated plan to increase compulsory superannuation to 12 per cent of wages by 2025, as its architect, former Prime Minister Paul Keating. But as is often the case when fundamental assumptions are questioned and legacies are at stake, the rhetoric has become more… Continue reading »
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